This year, the Quakers (6-6) have welcomed in six new faces to the program, each with her own unique background set of skills. An interesting note on that recruiting class is the range of positions spanned, bringing in a pitcher, catcher, two infielders, an outfielder, and a utility player.

As a show of support, every member of the team wrote letters to Jen for Ms. Retzer to read to her daughter. The team also created a fundraising page for Retzer on Generosity.com that has raised $27,796 from 316 donors as of March 20.

Penn softball will host Rider on Saturday in a doubleheader, assuming weather permits the games to be played. The Quakers (4-6) were supposed to have their home opener this Wednesday against Lafayette, but that doubleheader was postponed because of inclement weather. The makeup date has not yet been announced.

The Quakers will open their 2017 season with an action-packed trip down to the Sunshine State. This will be the team’s first chance to generate some positive momentum after a disappointing 2016. More importantly, it will be a major measuring stick for the team and a precious opportunity to gauge the makeup of the team before the games start to count in the Ivy League standings.

Sometimes things just don't turn out as you expect them to.
As the Penn softball team gears up for the final contests of the regular season this weekend against Columbia (13-30, 5-11 Ivy), that seems to be the overarching theme.

Penn softball came alive this week. With their first-ever four-game sweep of Cornell, the Quakers extended their winning streak to six games after dropping three of four to Princeton last weekend.
“Taking four from a team in one weekend is really difficult to do,” Penn coach Leslie King said.

Maybe all they needed was just a little time away from the Ancient Eight.
In a brief interlude from Ivy League competition, Penn took both games of a doubleheader against Saint Joesph's yesterday, defeating the Hawks by scores of 7-0 and 4-1.
The two games signified a returned to early season form for the Quakers (17-19), who have struggled recently in Ivy play.

The first time that Penn softball coach Leslie King stepped onto a softball diamond, she broke her nose.
A freshman in high school at the time, King fell victim to an untimely groundball that flew up into her face rather then nestling into her mitt.
“I had never played before,” she explained.

For Penn softball, not much has changed in the last two seasons. They have had a strong offense, made several runs at the Ivy Title and had an ace starter named Alexis.
But this year, the difference is in the last name.
Just a year after graduating perhaps the most illustrious pitcher in program history in Alexis Borden, the Quakers have found a new star in the circle in junior Alexis Sargent.
After waiting in the ranks for two years behind Borden, Sargent emerged as Penn's next top starter early in the season, wasting little time in establishing herself as a bona fide ace.

Less than a day after their men’s hoops counterparts won a national championship on an improbable buzzer-beating three pointer, Villanova softball traveled to University City to take on its counterparts from Penn.
Unlike the Wildcats’ victory over North Carolina, however, the outcome of this cross-town matchup was never in doubt, with Villanova cruising to a 10-0 decision.

Well, hopefully they got that out of their system.
In their last action before kicking off Ivy League play on Friday against Yale, Penn softball fell in both games of a doubleheader versus Lehigh at Penn Park on Wednesday afternoon.